EDDIE JORDAN is believed to have signed a three-year engine supply agreement with Mugen Honda in Japan yesterday with the formal announcement of the tie-up due at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.
Jordan has been negotiating with Mugen Honda, Ford, Mercedes and Peugeot and he has not been short of options: "There have always been a number of possibilities and my position is that I will take whatever option is in the long-term interest of the team," said Jordan.
The choice for Jordan was which engine gave him the best chance of victory at an acceptable cost. With Peugeot he would inevitably be playing second fiddle to Prost next year and the engine bill would have been close to Pounds 7 million.
In securing the Mugen Honda deal, Jordan will, in effect, be doing a direct swap with Prost's rival operation. Prost's cars currently use the Japanese engines, but will switch to Peugeot, whose engines currently power the Jordans, at the start of 1998.
The deal with Mugen Honda, a racing engine associate of the giant car manufacturer, will involve some payment by Jordan but a major deal with Mastercard, also to be announced this weekend, will help defray the cost.
Jordan recently opened a Pounds 2.5 million wind tunnel in Brackley and intends to continue to build his engineering resource in England.
The Jordan Mugen Honda team-up will renew a winning partnership. In 1989 Jordan won the Formula 3000 championship with Jean Alesi in a Mugen-engined car, while Eddie Irvine drove in the same championship for Jordan the following year and finished third in his Mugen-powered Reynard.
The three-litre Mugen V10 has been improving over the last four seasons in Formula One, finally striking gold by powering Olivier Panis to victory in last year's Monaco Grand Prix. Honda are believed to be considering a full return to Formula One in the near future. They are hoping to repeat their domination which reaped 71 wins from 1985 to 1992. Such a comeback would involve the Mugen engine becoming a full works Honda effort - a daunting prospect for rival engine makers.
The Jordan Mugen Honda partnership will, it appears, make Damon Hill's position with the troubled Arrows team virtually untenable.
Team owner Tom Walkinshaw had been hoping to secure the Mugen Honda engines to replace the unreliable and under-performing Yamahas which have powered his cars this season.
As far as Hill's future with the team is concerned, this could be the last straw which stands to break the back of an unsatisfactory relationship. Despite remaining outwardly stoic and philosophical about the Arrows team's prospects for the remainder of the season, their failure to secure the Mugen Honda engine contract seriously compromises the prospect of Hill remaining with the team.
Formula One insiders believe he must now make a move at the end of the season - possibly to the Swiss-based Sauber-Ferrari squad - if he is to have a chance of reviving his competitive career at the age of 37.
There have also been rumours that Arrows may be questioning their own Pounds 5 million investment in the reigning world champion. Walkinshaw was apparently not impressed by Hill's involvement in early-race collisions at Imola, Monaco and Magny-Cours.
Nevertheless, Hill was last week clinging to an upbeat line as he goes into the sixth British grand prix of his career. "If it is very wet, then I think we'll be looking in good shape," he predicted, referring to the proven performance of the Bridgestone rain tyres.
Despite this, Hill admits that it has been difficult to sustain his motivation driving an uncompetitive car. "You have to try and kick yourself in the pants a little bit, remind yourself that you are a professional, and try to do all the things you would do if the championship depended on it," he said.
